Fania All-Stars

The flagship act for Fania Records, the Fania All-Stars popularized New York salsa during the 1970s by organizing concerts at larger and larger venues (from the Red Garter in Greenwich Village all the way to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx) that spotlighted not only the label's but the salsa world's biggest stars -- Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Johnny Pacheco, Rubén Blades, Hector Lavoe, Ismael Miranda, Cheo Feliciano, Bobby Cruz, Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, and special guests like Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, and Eddie Palmieri. LPs by the collective were usually recorded live and featured long jams with plenty of space for solos for each of the salsa heroes on-stage at the time. Though the label management's quest for crossover success led to a few diluted major-label recordings during the late '70s and early '80s, infrequent events featuring the Fania All-Stars remained huge attractions into the late '90s. Fania Records was formed in March 1964 by Johnny Pacheco and lawyer Jerry Masucci. Originally just a tiny independent, the label was distributed to local stores out of the trunk of Pacheco's car. By 1967, Masucci's intrepid management had begun to pay dividends. After LPs by Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Joe Bataan, and Pacheco himself became popular within the New York salsa community, Masucci promoted a jam-session concert at the Red Garter. The Fania All-Stars' first two LPs, Live at the Red Garter, Vols. 1-2, were recorded that night, with guests including Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri. After sales proved slow outside New York, Masucci envisioned putting on another live show and filming the results. After negotiations to book the Fillmore East broke down, the Fania All-Stars appeared at the Cheetah in midtown Manhattan on August 26, 1971. Fans packed the club to more than...